Oana Raluca Ghilea, Perceptum: ” Clients stay with us for one reason: ROI”

Marketing strategist and entrepreneur, Oana Raluca Ghilea is the owner of Perceptum Concept, a marketing agency present on the local market for the last 8 years.

“Along with our team’s expertise, versatility, strategic vision, and attention to detail, the main reason clients stay with us boils down to one key factor: ROI. I think that marketing and technology, together, builds an holistic customer experience. Today, there’s no such thing as a purely “online” customer or a purely “offline” one. All customers are technology enabled, connected and always on.”, says Oana Raluca Ghilea.

Perceptum runs online and offline integrated marketing and PR campaigns, experiential events and exclusive hi-tech activations for top clients such as World Class, Oak Pool Pool, Medicover, Amgen, Maresyl, COS Romania, Under Armour Romania and Bulgaria. World Class Romania has found in Perceptum the strategic marketing and communication partner it needed to promote the #BeHealthy Movement nationwide through health and fitness festivals in the country, social media campaigns and World Class club activations. For the largest office design and fitout company in the country, COS Romania, as well as for Under Armour, Perceptum has designed social media communication strategy and launch events for new showrooms and stores in the country and abroad.

In a highly digitized world, what are the new opportunities for marketing campaigns?

The most valuable opportunity is personalizing marketing messages. Automation now allows us to collect data and adapt content to various niches or even individuals. Interaction with brands is becoming more and more personal, the brand story is a success only when the consumer feels part of this story and his relationship with the brand exceeds its usefulness and becomes part of his lifestyle. Inbound marketing becomes a must-have of all successful campaigns.

What are the main tactics of an inbound marketing that brings ROI?

Being the most promising of all, tactics are vast and start from Social Media campaigns to influences, programmatic marketing, SEO and, not the ultimate, video marketing. The most important thing in a successful campaign is how we integrate all these tactics in a consistent, consistent approach that brings the message of communication across all channels familiar to consumers and thus have the force of storytelling and generate attachment to brand.

The marketing industry is in continuous development. New ways to promote each day. What is the new holographic display system you’ve implemented on the Romanian market?

The Perceptum Concept has so far tested a lot of high-tech tactics and activations, some of them exclusive or premiere on the Romanian market, such as DreamOC or Gravity Lifter. We also introduced new video mapping with perfume activator, holographic pyramid, proximity sensor, sound and light effects, and perfume activator in our campaigns. I brought the holographic display to take another step forward, counting on the fact that Romanians are erly adopters of the latest technologies and brands can rely on that Wow Factor that guarantees these activations.

Do you have customers who have integrated this new system into their campaigns? What was the feedback?

We have implemented this display at fairs, national exhibitions, where the focus of visitors tends to disperse, and it is a great challenge to catch your attention and attention. Our feedback has encouraged us to further extend this activation to new integrated marketing campaigns.

What other ways of promoting recommend brands to highlight competition?

The main “hook” of brand communication is the message of the communication campaign. Everything starts from him. From the uniqueness and attractiveness of the message, by which the brand demonstrates, first of all, that it knows its target audience. Because a successful campaign is the campaign that has been able to connect the brand story to the consumer story. And this happens when the promoted product becomes, more than part of its consumption habit, part of its lifestyle.

At the moment, can we talk about an increase in marketing budgets?

We live in a period of maximum blossoming of digital marketing. The need for brand communication is directly proportional to the need for public communication, and if we look at social networking, we see the colossal opportunities that open up to brands. From this perspective, it is normal to increase marketing budgets, but it is just as normal to diversify the tools and activation tactics of each target audience.

Compared to the foreign market, how do we stand?

According to Statista, in 2018 Europe invested in marketing around $ 154 billion. For Romania, we have data for 2017 when marketing and advertising expenses were around $ 70 million, similar to the level recorded in Bulgaria, but well below the amount spent in Hungary.

Does TV still remain the best channel of communication?

Traditional media channels are still running, but the internet and social channels are gaining ground at a galloping pace. Already, in 2016, more than 60% of Europe’s population said they use the internet every day. It is true that, in the same year, the TV was still the most visited, with over 80% of users each day. But people are no longer just wanting information or entertainment like the One Direction. They want interaction, the ability to react, to influence, to express themselves in relation to the information received. And that’s why the digital world does not have competition. Television remains the most popular channel, but for the promotion and development of brands, community penetration is needed and this is done by accessing online and also integrating campaigns and offline activation.

As a strategic positioning consultant, how do you help brands differentiate in a highly crowded market?

All brands want to find that differentiating factor by which to become truly memorable and to generate loyalty. For this, we start from research on the competitive market and the target audience. This is the foundation of any campaign that brings ROI. Our campaigns focus on the consumer, his lifestyle, his desires, his need for affirmation, and his belonging to a community in which he feels valued. After the foundation, there is a complete construction with a 360 ° perspective , where we put all Perceptum’s creativity and appetite for innovation.